FOR PRESS, PODCAST HOSTS, AND EVENT ORGANISERS
Kate Markland is available for interviews on children's literacy, narrative autonomy, self-leadership, women in leadership, and the intersection of clinical listening and child development.
Review copies of The Adventures of Gabriel are available on request.
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE
"A mother and son's storytelling ritual is helping to transform how children learn to write and express themselves through their own stories."
Yahoo News — July 2025
"The classroom buzzed with creativity, freedom, and a newfound realisation that, though small, their voices are mighty."
MSN — May 2025
"11-year-old's story sparks educational revolution as boys rediscover love of writing."
MSN — April 2025
"The Adventures of Bradford where every child's story comes to life."
REGIONAL COVERAGE
The Yorkshire Post — July 2025
"A powerful antidote to falling literacy rates among boys, post-pandemic oracy gaps, and the emotional weight many pupils silently carry."
The Bradford Telegraph and Argus
Bradford children become authors for the city's literature festival.
Gabriel's story helps kids reconnect with writing.
Children unlock the wonderful world of their imagination.
First education blogger pickup.
PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIALIST
TEACH Magazine, Canada — September 2025
The Birth of StoryQuest: Storytelling Framework Reignites Writing Confidence in Students.
The Canadian Teacher Magazine - July 2025
The Science behind StoryQuest
Pakistan Education Review - December 2025
Oral Storytelling as a Bridge to Literacy: How One Boy's Stories Could Transform Pakistan's Literacy Crisis.
PhysioTimes India - November 2025
The Blank Page Breakthrough: How a Physiotherapist's Listening Skills Sparked a Literacy Revolution.
PhysioZine India - Febuary 2026
Kate Markland Front Cover Story and Biography
Journal of Novel Physiotherapy and Rehbilitation — 2024
From Adversity to Agency: Storytelling as a Tool for Building Children's Resilience.
Markland, K. (2024). Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 039–042. ISSN 2573-6264.
British Psychological Society Annual Conference — January 2025
Presentation: From Adversity to Agency: Storytelling as a Tool for Building Children's Resilience.
UK Parliament
Evidence submitted to the Committee on Institutional Transformation.
RADIO AND BROADCAST
Times Radio — October 2024
Featured during the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire — May 2025
Day Time Show.
Bradford Community Broadcast BCB 106.6FM — April and May 2025
Bradford and Beyond. Multiple episodes featuring Bradford children reading their own published stories.
Steel FM — April 2025
The Business Show.
PUBLISHED QUOTES, READY TO USE
"A mother and son's storytelling ritual is helping to transform how children learn to write and express themselves through their own stories."
— BBC News, June 2025
"A powerful antidote to falling literacy rates among boys, post-pandemic oracy gaps, and the emotional weight many pupils silently carry."
— The Yorkshire Post, July 2025
"The classroom buzzed with creativity, freedom, and a newfound realisation that, though small, their voices are mighty."
— Yahoo News
"When children tell their stories in their own words, without restrictions, their creativity is free to flow."
— TEACH Magazine, Canada
"We see this programme aligning beautifully with our wider literacy vision: fostering creativity, developing agency, and building lifelong readers and writers."
— Tom Hirst, Head of English, Dixon's Manningham Primary, Bradford
SHORT BIOS FOR EDITORIAL USE
50 words
Kate Markland is the co-author of The Adventures of Gabriel, an international bestselling children's book series, and the founder of StoryQuest. A former award-winning physiotherapist, she has applied twenty years of clinical listening principles to children's storytelling. She presented at the British Psychological Society and submitted evidence to UK Parliament.
150 words
Kate Markland is a former award-winning physiotherapist who spent twenty years using clinical listening as a diagnostic tool before discovering its extraordinary power in children's storytelling.
She is the co-author of The Adventures of Gabriel, an international bestselling series. Her son Gabriel is her co-author. He was ten years old when they invented the world.
The methodology she developed, StoryQuest, has been piloted with 465 children across nine UK schools, achieving 100% engagement and zero behavioural incidents.
A Classic Grounded Theory evaluation study across 318 children identified seven self-leadership markers that emerge reliably when children are trusted to author their own stories.
She has presented at the British Psychological Society Conference, submitted evidence to the UK Parliament and Social Work England. Kate has appeared on BBC News, Times Radio, and in publications across five continents. She is the founder of StoryQuest and the creator of the StoryQuest Club.
250 words
Kate Markland spent twenty years as an award-winning physiotherapist, using clinical listening as a primary diagnostic tool. She did not know that this skill would transform her son's relationship with his own voice, and eventually the lives of hundreds of children across the UK and beyond.
When Kate's son Gabriel was young, they had one hour a week together. A Friday night FaceTime call. She asked him to tell her a story. They invented a world, Coral Cove, Platy, Captain Ali, Tentaculus, and she wrote down every idea.
She wrote it down to prove she existed as a mother. He every word he spoke to prove he existed as her son. Those Friday evenings are the emotional truth inside every book in the series.
Those Friday nights became The Adventures of Gabriel, an international Amazon number one bestselling series. Gabriel was ten years old when the first book was published. The series is planned to be a nine-book epic, a trilogy of trilogies, carrying one unifying message: you are real because you believe you are real.
Kate went on to apply the same approach, one question, no correction, complete trust in the child's narrative, to 465 children across nine UK schools, achieving 100% engagement and zero behavioural incidents. She presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, submitted evidence to the UK Parliament, and was considered by UNICEF.
Kate is the founder of StoryQuest and the creator of the StoryQuest Club. She speaks on children's voice, self-leadership, and building a movement out of constraint.
INTERVIEW TOPICS IDEAS
Why children stop writing and what actually reverses it
The clinical listening principles that unlock a child's creative voice
Seven self-leadership markers that emerge through storytelling
How a Friday night FaceTime became bestsellers
The painted prison: how systems paint false pictures of children, and how children can refuse the painting
The mutual rescue: a mother who wrote down every word to prove she existed, a son who spoke every word to prove he existed
The connection between narrative autonomy and psychological safety in children
Building a movement from constraint: adversity to agency
What physiotherapy taught her about listening to children that teaching never does
The three core messages of a nine-book epic: don't give up, hope is a practice, you are real because you believe you are real
Every child deserves to be heard before they are corrected.